Thoughts Of A Simple Ol' Boy From Austin

The Saddest Story You May Ever Hear

What is love? How can it be measured? What barometer can we apply to gauge the feeling between a man and a woman? Our society has standards. We fix age restrictions on relationships. We mandate a point in time when it is legally deemed a human mind can make its own decisions. A point in time after which the mind, and heart, are legally allowed to love. If we, as individuals circumspect thus rule we are ostracized, marked with a scarlet letter, and all,the king’s horses, and all the king’s men can never put us back together again.

I submit for your consideration two young lovers. A boy of sixteen, and a girl, fourteen. They had known each other all of their lives. As puberty dawned they learned the passionate side of the feelings they had for each other since before they could remember. Keeping them apart was impossible because they completed each other. One, without the other, was not a total person, and they became one. No arguments, no fights, no drug problems, just an undying affection that no one could come between.

The boy turned eighteen, and the girl sixteen. The girl’s parents, seething with hate, filed rape charges on the boy, and he was sent to prison. He got out in eight years. He was now twenty six, and his girl was now a young lady, of twenty four, who patiently waited for his release and she ran to him. The parole board had imposed a condition on the young man. He was never to see the girl again. When the parole officer came for a home inspection she opened the door, and being clueless, told the officer her name. When the young man reported for his next monthly meeting he was arrested and sent back to prison to complete his last two years.

Now he was twenty eight, she was twenty six. They could not stay apart. They both knew that. The parents of the girl reported that the couple had been seeing each other, and even though the young man was not on parole, he was still under the condition of never seeing, or even speaking to his girl on the phone. He he got a call from the police, asking him to come down to the station for questioning. If they could prove he had even spoke to the girl it would mean a second offense. It would cost him fifteen more years of his life.

He was strong, but thus time life was bigger than the strength he had to get up off his knees. The young cowboy put a gun to his head and rode into his last sunset. Somewhere in Texas there is a young lady who walks alone. No one will ever fill the emptiness in her heart. Somewhere there are her parents, satisfied that justice was done and somewhere there is a God who will be the final judge of all.